I believe "end of work" means you are ending the QSO, but what dictates whether you use "break" or "end of message" during the QSO? To me they appear to mean the same. I haven't seen where end of message means - back to you vs. BK.

If you listen to CW QSOs you will find many people beaking thoughts/sentences with a BK (dah-di-di-di-dah).

You will also sometimes hear someone using a BREAK to quickly transfer the QSO back to the other op. This is sent as a BK and is sent one of two ways: dah-di-di-dit dah-di-dah or dah-di-di-di-dah-di-dah.

FCC requirements are onl to identify at the end of each transmission or every ten minutes within a long transmission. Therefore, many experienced operators uses the BK as a quick way for back-and-forth chatting.

Hi Steve,
Good question and one that has confused many for a while now.
Amongst friends dah di di dit _ dah di dah sent as two distinct letters B and K is often used to turn it back over to the other station or in place of BTU (back to you)

The prosign BK is sent as one sound "dah di di di dah di dah"

When sent as a prosign ( letters run together as one sound) it is used as a break in the message.
The pause Ron suggests ( dah di di di dah) is not "BK" but a double dash (=) or equals sign. It is sent to insert a pause or hesitation. Just like saying " tomorrow is "hmmm, lets see" Tuesday." The "dah di di di dah" is sent in place of the "hmmm lets see".

Interesting topic... and as Randy suggests, the use of prosigns (not to mention punctuation) can be confusing, i.e., you'd get probably 10 different answers if you asked 10 different amateurs.

Regarding the double-dash (BT), I've never heard it refered to as a pause, and haven't used it as such. Instead, I use it to indicate a change in topics.. more like a paragraph change than a pause or end of sentence. But I guess the whole issue of the majority of hams not using proper punctuation should be left to another thread. I for one am not afraid of throwing an appropriate period or comma at the right time, just as you would a question mark. Sometimes it's absolutely required to ensure your thoughts are not misunderstood.

Interestingly, I remember running across a ham running software to send CW, and that software was configured to repeatedly send out an idle code (BT in this case) when nothing was being typed. I think it was a carry over from RTTY or some other digital mode setting. It was very annoying hearing a bunch of BT's when the guy was figuring out what next to send... or was typing slow.

N6EV wrote:Interestingly, I remember running across a ham running software to send CW, and that software was configured to repeatedly send out an idle code (BT in this case) when nothing was being typed. I think it was a carry over from RTTY or some other digital mode setting. It was very annoying hearing a bunch of BT's when the guy was figuring out what next to send... or was typing slow.

Paul,
That is a perfect example of what I was trying to get across. "A state of idle" or thinking about what to say next. Thanks.